No doubt about it, your post-drinks morning routine is going to be about reaching for something to quench your thirst – immediately. You go to grab a drink of water only to find that it’s not doing nearly as much for you as you hoped. So, what can you do if you want a solid morning recovery drink that actually does something for you? We’re going to take a look at our favorite recipe for a morning recovery drink and why it may help to cure your hangover blues faster than just water alone.

Why do I need a morning recovery drink?

While hangover symptoms generally go away completely between eight and 24 hours after drinking, sometimes you just don’t want to wait that long. Plus, replenishing your body immediately after a night of damage is not the worst idea. Whether you want to believe it or not, alcohol takes its toll on your body – in both the long term and short term. This is because alcohol is actually a toxic substance and your hangover is proof that it’s not yet out of your body.

Immediate effects of alcohol

Let’s first talk about the immediate effects of drinking alcohol. Your stomach absorbs only 20% of the alcohol that passes through your system while the remaining 80% is absorbed by your small intestine. Once absorbed, it travels into the bloodstream and is carried around the rest of your body. Your body can only metabolize one standard unit of alcohol per hour. If you are trying to get your body to handle more than this by “binge drinking”, you are causing your liver to attempt to work overtime even though it’s physically impossible for it to get excessive alcohol out your system at the rate that it needs for you to stay healthy. This results in intoxication and a potentially lasting effect on your liver and other major bodily organs. The obvious results of intoxication can include:

• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Headache
• Short term memory loss
• Anxiety
• Slurred speech
• Clumsiness
• Distortion of perception

Long term effects of alcohol

Encouraging your body to recover as effectively and quickly as possible after a night out is always a good idea. While a certain amount of damage has already been done, encouraging your body to recover faster by putting essential nutrients back into it as quickly as possible is always an excellent idea. Long term effects of alcohol on the body can include:

• Vitamin deficiencies
• Liver disease
• Stomach ulcers
• Brain and nerve damage
• Cardiovascular issues
• Pancreatitis
• Damage to the immune system

While the obvious solution is not drinking alcohol at all, there are ways to not only decrease the damage that you’ve already done to your body but also to help clear up that hangover faster and more efficiently so you can go about your day.

Our favorite recipe for a morning recovery drink

This smoothie recipe focuses on detoxifying your liver which is needed after a night of having to keep up with possibly excessive alcohol intake (we’re not judging).  It also provides essential nutrients to the rest of your body, helping to speed recovery and get those vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids back into you as quickly as possible.

Leave Your Liver Alone Detoxifying Recovery Smoothie

Have a knife for chopping and a blender that works? That’s all you need for this powerhouse recovery smoothie. Just throw the following in a blender, and blend until smooth.

Ingredients

• One to two apples
• Two large celery sticks
• ¼ to ½ of one avocado
• Two to three handfuls of kale
• One squeeze of fresh lemon
• One tablespoon flax seeds (ground)
• One piece of fresh ginger (about 2 cm in length)
• One to three glasses of filtered water (depending on how you like the consistency)

All of the ingredients in this recovery smoothie have a purpose when it comes to helping your body heal and recover. Kale, a cruciferous vegetable, is a source of glutathione which encourages the enzymes of the liver responsible for cleansing out toxins. Alcohol is classified as a group one carcinogen which cruciferous vegetables can help to flush out of your system as well as other nasty toxins. The hit of vitamin C that a squeeze of fresh lemon produces can help significantly in helping to detoxify the liver. Vitamin C stimulates the liver and helps convert toxic materials into substances that can be absorbed by water. It can also protect the liver by reducing inflammation which prevents long term damage. In addition, avocado can help raise low potassium levels that can be depleted after a night of drinking and also contains compounds that protect against liver injury.

What else can I do?

If you really want to boost your morning recovery, consider taking a dietary supplement to help speed things along. RaveAid is specifically meant to prevent and reduce that feeling of “coming down” after a night out. RaveAid helps detox your entire body and promotes rapid recovery by providing a boost of essential vitamins, such as vitamin C, E, B3, and B6, as well as alpha-lipoic-acid and 5-HTP, among other things. RaveAid is meant to be taken up to three days before an event where partying hard is a likelihood, as well as the day of the event and up to three days following. Seeing as a single dose of RaveAid contains up to seven times more vitamin C than a glass of orange juice, chances are your liver is going to be worshipping the ground you walk on.

While there are many fantastic recipes out there for a morning recovery drink, consider the above for serious detoxification on your liver. Combining your recovery drink with a dose of Rave Aid can give you that extra little boost that you need, to help with any and all of your remaining comedown symptoms. When it comes down to it, making sure you’re taking care of your body should always be your number one priority before, during, and after introducing any kind of unwanted substance into your body (and, of course, any other old time).